The House of Hades
by MerlinJones
Summary: These are my first two chapters from my fan fiction of "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan from the POV of Nico. Hope you enjoy! SPOILER ALERT: Don't read this unless you have read "The Mark of Athena!" Update: Two more chapters added and Hazel POV added.
1. Chapters 1 and 2

III

Nico

**Leo hadn't been telling the complete truth; **they weren't exactly _in_ Lecce, more like they were hovering over it, but even from the air it was an impressive sight.

"It-it-it's beautiful!" Hazel gasped in definite awe this time. Nico had to agree.

Though it was nowhere near the size or splendour of Rome, it made up for it in its beautiful architecture, and its defining structures. From where they were situated in the sky, Nico could see for miles, and could make out dozens of churches, hundreds of piazzas, and-was that a castle? Nico turned his eyes toward the baby blue iridescent sea, and felt a wave of sadness. If only Percy were here. He quickly wiped away a tear with the hem of his sleeve, before anybody noticed.

"Ok Leo," Jason said begrudgingly. "This is cool. This is definitely cool."

"Yeah, nice pit stop Valdez!" the Coach commented in a serious tone. Then, grinning like a wild goat and with an enthusiastic first pump, said, "Now let's go break some stuff!"

"Uh Coach," Leo said sheepishly. "About that…yeah, actually you're gonna be sitting this one out-sorry."

The martial arts cage match watching satyr's face turned beet red, as he processed what The Latin-American demigod had just said. "No _way,_ Valdez! Not this time!" he cried outraged, swinging his club in Leo's general direction. Deftly ducking the blow, he countered hastily, "C'mon Coach lay off! What I meant to say is that I need someone like you to watch over the ship while I work on the ship! Honest!"

Once it dawned on him what Leo had said, Gleeson Hedge stopped his battle-crazed rampage and looked at Leo first in confusion, and then as what Leo had told him dawned on the satyr, he nodded solemnly. "Right! I'll protect you from monsters and tourists, while you do your Hephaestus thing!"

"I hope he was joking about the tourists." Leo muttered.

"What was that Valdez?"

"Just talking about how you should watch out for those tourists."

Hedge grinned, showing that he still hadn't brushed his teeth yet, and said, "Will do Valdez, will do!"

"Guys," Piper said, interrupting their odd man/goat exchange. 'We should get going."

"Piper's right," Nico said, who had been silent until now. "We don't have all day, and besides; we don't know what Percy and Annabeth have to face right now down there." He emphasized this by pointing down at the ancient Roman city below.

Leo looked around uncomfortably. If no one had known what he had been talking about earlier, now they did. Sorry to burst your bubble, Nico thought grimly. But we have a quest to finish.

"Nico's right." Jason said with a struggle, like he was thinking, _Stop acting like a leader; that's my job you punk. _"We've got to get going if we're going to get any day light at all."

The sun was pretty low in the sky, so Nico assumed it was already late afternoon or early evening, (as if they had traveled back in time or something; of course, even by demigod standards, that was highly improbable, but not impossible) though he couldn't be sure; if they were going to get anything done, it was now or never.

Leo nodded thoughtfully. "Right. I'll land the ship in that castle-looking place over there, and then we'll make a plan for the afternoon.

As they came in for a landing, the aerial oars manoeuvring them toward an open flat of land within the fortress boundaries, Hazel pulled her brother aside, and whispered, "Nico, I talked to Frank on our way here, and the reason he's treating you so funny is because he's scared of you Nico. You see, during our quest with Percy, his father Mars gave him this staff that raised this _spartus, _and it really freaked him out. Just wanted to let you know that's all."

Nico thought about that. He looked towards the big guy, who averted his eyes guiltily. So he had assumed correctly. Nico _had_ shaken him up, liek he did most people he met. That, combined with his own self-blame, resulted in his bad attitude. That didn't explain Jason though. Maybe Nico was overreacting. Jason hadn't really treated him all that bad. But right now that didn't matter. All that mattered was Leo could put upgrades on the ship in the least possible time as possible, so they could reach Epirus on the right day, whichever one it would be.

Nico had been so lost in thought, (as usual) that he hadn't realized Leo had been talking, yet again ignoring Leo, for the second time that day.

He decided to listen in, assuming what Leo was saying was important.

"I could have landed us closer to the sea," Leo explained, his eyes glued onto the helm's monitor screen. "But instead I thought it would be safer to land us more inland, with Keto's monsters and all still on the loose, considering we don't know how dangerous the Adriatic is even with the sonar on, and how powerful the Parthenos's aura really is. I know that Gaea is more powerful when we're on the ground, but besides; it gives me more things to do in the meantime, and hopefully no monsters will attack, assuming our luck still holds."

Nico wasn't exactly sure what Leo was talking about, considering their "luck" so far had been pretty much non-existent , but he realized Leo was still shaken up over their last experience on the water, whether anyone blamed it on him or not, so he decided not to mention it.

As they got closer to the medieval looking building, Nico realized it was some sort of park or hotel. He could see mortals lounging around reading books at small round coffee tables with those little umbrellas sticking up to shade them from the sun, people walking their dogs, or sitting on park benches chatting. He could only hope that they wouldn't notice the gargantuan Ancient Greek trireme slowly descending upon them.

Oddly enough no one did. Well _no one_ was putting it a bit too optimistically. Occasionally people would gawk at the sky, but they didn't seem to do anything about it. Maybe they saw an airplane, or an inflatable blimp. It was hard to know what mortals saw through the mysterious force called the Mist.

Finally, the ship settled down in the middle of an open veranda, next to a Renaissance-style turret and everybody met up on deck. It was decided that the three guys, Nico, Frank and Jason would team up together, and the two girls, Piper and Hazel would go together. Frank scowled at this prospect, but Jason kept his face neutral, so Nico couldn't determine how he felt on the matter. Leo and Coach would stay behind while Leo put his upgrades onto the ship.

Leo pulled a map out of his tool belt and handed to each of the two groups, when Frank pointed out, "Hey, why didn't we use one of these last time?!"

To which Leo replied blushing, and shuffling his feet awkwardly,"Oops! I kind of forgot about that."

They had to get Coach Hedge, Jason and Nico, to restrain the solid Chinese Canadian teenager from beating Leo to a pulp.

After that was dealt with, Leo lowered the boarding ramp, and the five demigods exited the trireme into a warm, but not all that uncomfortable atmosphere. "I'll keep in touch," Leo reassured them, on their way down. "If you get into any trouble, just send me an Iris message, and I'll be on my way." He winked slyly, and everybody laughed.

Once going down the ramp of the ship, Nico felt much better. Being stuck on a floating ship for hours on end was not one of the things on Nico's top ten list of favourite things to do. He realized that he had become much too philosophical recently, and brooded too much, and needed to be more focused on the matters at hand. Maybe that's why people acted so funny around him. Nico shook his head amusedly. He was doing it again.

It took them a little while to find their way around the castle-like place, and they got a few strange looks from the mortals there, but finally the three demigod boys emerged onto the streets of Lecce.

The first thing Nico noticed was that it was a lot like Rome, but nothing at all like Rome. Everything here felt more compact or closer together, and it had more of a lazy small-town feel, and almost felt more modern than Rome. Not to say that that was true; (according to the map, Lecce stretched all the way to the sea,) and was over two-thousand years old, but it sure felt that way.

After winding their way through some busy streets, and narrowly avoiding being hit by oncoming traffic and constantly dodging people's vespas, they decided to eat out some place using some mortal money that Leo had given them for the rest of the day. They ate at a small corner side restaurant called _Mario's _(which Nico found quite ironic,) and Jason asked the waiter there some good places for an average tourist to check out.

At first he seemed to look uncomfortable telling unaccompanied minors where to go, but finally he said in a thick Italian accent, "The Roman Amphitheatre is not too far from here." He circled it on the map in blue pen, and once they had finished their meal, (Nico had pasta, Frank had spaghetti, and Jason had some pepperoni and olive pizza,) they made their way there.

Fortunately, it wasn't all that far off from where they had eaten, so they didn't get too lost, though they had to ask direction once or twice from friendly strangers. So far there had been no monster attacks, which was surprisingly optimistic, but Nico couldn't help shake the feeling like they were being watched. None of the three pre-adolescent guys talked while they walked, all of them being too preoccupied with their own thoughts, but all the same there was an uneasy silence in the air.

Nico was glad when they finally found what they had been looking for. Surrounded on three sides by long wide cobblestone roads, the Amphitheatre was nothing all that spectacular in demigod standards, with arches, broken pillars and broken stairways shooting out of the grassy/earthy ground, where the foundations of the Amphitheatre had been in days long past. A large ring of seats lay in one of the corners, and a sizeable brick building encircled one section of the Amphitheatre, with the words, ISTITUTO NAZIONALE ASSICURAZIONI inscribed on it in black letters, which Nico eventually translated roughly to, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR INSURANCE. There was a modern clock tower connected to this, and facing one side of this building there was a limestone arch, flanked by a large column resting on a pedestal, with a Roman bishop holding a sceptre in his left hand, while his right hand was raised palm out,and index finger crooked slightly in a sign of blessing.

The three young half-bloods leaned nonchalantly against the railing, which had stone X's as supports, some more worn than others, and looked at the ancient sight before them. Nico realized Annabeth would have loved this, and that just brought a bitter taste to his mouth. He wondered how Percy and Annabeth were faring, and how Annabeth's ankle was holding up. Nico really hadn't gotten to know Annabeth over the years. But what he had seen of her, he knew that she could hold her own in a fight.

Finally Jason spoke up, breaking Nico's train of thought. "We can't stay here all day. Come on, we should start to head back and see if Leo's done with the ship-"

Jason turned to leave, then froze, pulled out his golden _denarius_ coin, tossed it in his hand and it turned into his trusty Imperial golden _gladius_. Frank drew his sword also, and Nico reached for his Stygian iron blade, and cursing realized he had left it aboard the _Argo II. _ He turned to see who this new foe could be.

Standing in front of them was a man dressed in full golden armour, with a quite terrifyingly accurate gorgon's head helmet, and a sword that looked very similar to Jason's. He leaned apathetically on the hilt of this, as if he had all the time in the world, which considering the mere size of him, he probably did.

"Not _you_ again!" Jason growled, pointing his weapon at the golden figure's chest. "I thought we lost you in the Mediterranean!"

Nico vaguely remember Hazel mentioning something about this very same warrior, but his brain was suddenly very scattered and confused.

"Yes, Jason Grace," he said in a weird, sibilant, middle-eastern sounding accent. "It is I, Chrysaor!"

Frank suddenly seemed to panic, and turned into a dolphin, which Nico thought didn't really help their situation all that much, and would have been funny, if they weren't in the middle of a city, with no water in sight whatsoever.

Chrysaor laughed, a harsh grating sound, and said menacingly, "Is that the best you can do, Frank Zhang? I will bring her head back to Gaea on a silver platter!"

"Wait a minute," said Jason, as if finally cluing in to something they had all missed. "Last time we faced you us you had your stupid dolphin friends. But now you face us alone; why is that?"

Chrysaor growled angrily, "You impudent young hero, behold, Chrysaor's newly improved army!"

The "Golden Boy" snapped his fingers, and immediately all the tourists around the three demigods eyes turned golden and lifeless. They turned toward them, and in unison said in a metallic, grating voice, "_Jason Grace, Frank Zhang, Nico di Angelo, prepare to face your death._"

"Eidolons," Jason said his voice dry.

Frank, now human, gulped nervously. Nico had briefly heard about the stupid possessing spirits, and how Piper had done an exorcism with her charmspeak on Jason, Percy and Leo, and forced the eidolons possessing them to swear on the River Styx never to posses another one of the crew again; Nico now suddenly hoped he was on that list as well.

"Yes, fear the minions of Gaea!" Chrysaor said victoriously. "Now see the fate of your two comrades in Tartarus and despair!"

Before anyone could react to that shocking statement, Chrysaor took his sword and stabbed it into the cobblestone road, then withdrew it just as quickly. At first nothing happened. Then slowly but surely, a dark scene appeared in the ground. With a start Nico saw that he was looking into Tartarus, and two small figures were stumbling their way through that evil place. Suddenly the image focused up close, and Nico could see the frightened faces of Percy and Annabeth painstakingly making their way through the darkness, illuminated by the glow of Percy's sword, Riptide, and Annabeth's bronze dagger.

Behind them a large bloated shape followed them hissing in absolute hatred. Percy quickly pivoted and turned to face the thing, swinging Riptide as hard as he could against the monster's skull. It disintegrated into powdered dust, but immediately began to reform. Percy cursed and turned to Annabeth. She looked terrible. Her face was completely pale. She was scratched and bleeding in multiple places, and Percy didn't look much better. She tried to go on, but tripped, couldn't regain her balance, and fell, losing her grip on her dagger, which clattered away into the darkness. She cried out in pain, and Percy helped her up. By this time, the giant monster-was that a spider? - had mostly put itself back together. Nico wanted to yell at them to look out, but he knew he could do nothing but watch in horror as the spider shot a strand of web at Annabeth's broken leg, and snagged her by it. She screamed in terror and agony, and Percy hacked at the web, but he was to slow. Annabeth was gone. Chrysoar swiped his balde through the image and it dissolved, and the cobblestone reformed, and Chrysaor was standing over them, smirking in distaste. The last thing Nico saw before the scene faded into nothing, was Percy holding both Riptide, and Annabeth's dagger, and plunging into the darkness.

Nico felt a sudden rage well up inside him. Who did this jerk-face think he was showing them their worst fears and acting so tough and heartless about the whole situation in general? Before he could act on this impulse however, and probably do something rash and stupid that he'd regret later, Jason whispered to him out of the corner of his mouth, "We can take him together Nico, don't worry."

"Not with all those eidolons around," Nico pointed out. How could they get rid of all those eidolons without hurting the mortals? The ghost of an idea began to filter into Nico's cunning mind. It was a crazy idea sure, but it might just work.

"I will face him," Nico said, a little louder than he had meant to.

"What was that?" Chrysaor said, focusing on Nico's face.

"I said," he replied, stepping forward." I will face you. We'll be one on one and it'll be to the death. I swear this on the River Styx."

Before he could go nay further, Jason grabbed his shoulder, and whispered more urgently now, "Uh Nico? Are you sure about this? You do realize-"

"Yeah I know," Nico said, shrugging off Jason's hand. "Don't worry I've got this. I am a son of Hades after all." Nico smiled sheepishly at Jason, and he seemed to relax a little bit. Even Frank, who hadn't liked Nico from the beginning, seemed to look a little less worried, which just made Nico feel guilty. Why was he doing this? It's not like he had anything to prove. Yes, the other side of his brain said. You do. Whatever the reason was, he would still go through with it, even if it would claim his life. Who knows, maybe even his father would be watching him. He doubted that was so, but he still willed himself to believe so.

"If you need any back up," Jason murmured in his ear. "If I see Chrysaor is going to win, swear or not, I'm going to help you know matter what. Got it Frank?" Jason looked up at the son of Mars, his eyes pleading him to say yes. Frank must of had good ears, or could read minds/emotions really well, because he muttered back,

"Sure, whatever." But he didn't he didn't look too thrilled about it.

Nico was actually kind of surprised, (which he really shouldn't be,) that Frank would actually do that for him, even if Jason made him. Maybe he still felt guitly aobut treating Nico so badly. He wondered now more than ever what his sister had talked to Frank about, that made him like htis.

"I've got this." Nico said, then took a deep breath, and moved closer towards his opponent.

"Do you agree to my terms?" Nico asked.

Chrysaor hissed, and Nico almost thought that he could feel his fear, but as quickly as it had come it was gone, and he answered confidently, "I agree to your terms, Nico di Angelo. Though you are not Percy Jackson," (at that point he spit out the words as if they were poison) "I will face you anyway. I never step down to a challenge. However, I see you have no weapon. I will not fight an unarmed opponent."

"Well that's just too bad for you then isn't it?" Nico snapped, grinding his teeth together impatiently. "Will you fight me or not Fish boy?"

That did it. Chryasor snarled angrily and said, "Very well then son of Hades, scum of the Underworld. Your father will not save you _this _time!"

He snapped his fingers again, but this time instead of eidolons, the Amphitheatre rebuilt itself, piece by piece, brick by brick. Nico was suddenly standing on a lightly sanded, beige-coloured limestone semi-oval, Chrysaor directly across from him. The eidolons lined the seats, and Jason and Frank sat at the end closest him, their bodies tensed, ready for action in case the fight went awry or not to their liking.

"I will enjoy making you bleed, death spawn. Prepare to die!"

"Your move," Nico said, looking Jason in the eyes. He nodded. He was as ready as they all were.

Suddenly Jason's face was masked with terror, and he yelled over the hissing of the possessed, "Look out!"

Nico turned on the soles of his feet, just to see Chrysaor making his way towards him at a starling speed.

Here goes nothing, he thought grimly.

Chrysaor charged.

IV

Nico

**Right before Chrysaor came down him, **Nico made his move. Throwing himself down, he slid through Chrysaor's armoured legs. He was momentarily confused, but not for long. Propelled forward by the force of his charge Chrysaor went flying out of the ring, and smashed into a column, with a loud yell of rage. However, he was not fazed. Struggling upwards, he dusted himself off and laughed amusedly,

"Is that all you can muster di Angelo!" He leaped, higher than should have been possible, and landed feet first on the stage.

"And now for the grand finale!" Chrysaor said sweeping his hand dramatically in the air. Nico went into a fighting stance and Chrysaor changed tactics. He circled Nico, looking for an open spot, which there was a lot of. Swinging his blade experimentally, Chryasor began to move his sword at an alarming rate, spinning it in large blurred controlled circles like he was hewing wheat in a field, and getting ever closer to his target with each pass of his blade.

Nico suddenly felt naked and useless. He wished more than ever that he had a sword like Percy's which returned to his pocket when he lost it. But he didn't. He had wanted to put this part of the plan into action at a later point, but it was starting to look like he was running out of options. Raising his hands into the sky and swaying back in forth as if in a trance he cried authoritatively in Ancient Greek, "Eidolons! Spirits of the dead! Answer my call! Come to my aid!"

At first, nothing happened. Chrysaor laughed mockingly, saying, "Ha! You fool! You cannot control the minions of Gaea!"

Please dad, Nico pleaded. Please help me in my time of need.

Chrysaor had become more cautious, but was getting dangerously close. Nico could feel the air around him being disturbed by each arc of sword, which was not a good sign.

This is it, Nico thought bitterly. I've failed.

As if out of the blue there was a loud groan as of a sudden wind, and then Nico was very far from alone. The eidolons hovered around him in spirit form, hissing with a sound like the grinding of metal, their pale golden eyes surveying the scene as if it were not unfamiliar to them. Hundreds of eyes turned upon Nico, and he couldn't help the shiver he felt go up his spine. Man, sometimes his powers were really darn creepy.

"_We serve the master of the dead; the 'Ghost_ _King'! _"they intoned in their hollow voices, staring deep into the son of Hades's eyes, as if they were looknig deep into his soul, or waiting for a command. Nico shuddered. Yeah, he was pretty creepy all right. Silently he thanked his father, then to the eidolons he said, "Eidolons, fulfil your oath and fight this man, and you will be rewarded."

This was followed by a harsh grinding noise, and then the eidolons went to work, swarming over Chrysaor unmercifully. Puzzled mortals tried to leave their seats, but Chrysaor snapped his fingers and said, "Eidolons possess!" But if the eidolons even heard him, nothing happened, and the free spectators continued to walk around in a daze.

"Nooooooo!" Chrysaor wailed and let out an ear-splitting shriek, as he was raised into the air above the Amphitheatre by the spirits. "This cannot be! The Earth-Mother promised me! She promised!"

"Gaea has no control over the air, Golden Boy!" Nico growled. "Eidolons-drop him!"

"Nooooo!" he continued to plead, then, "Wait! I have information; information about your friends!"

Nico hesitated. He looked over at Frank and Jason who were stunned with shock and probably horror; he didn't blame them. What if Chrysaor was bluffing though? It wasn't unlikely. And besides; he didn't know which friends Chrysoar was speaking of, (most like Percy and Annabeth, but he wasn't one hundred percent positive on that fact.) Should he trust this monster/man/whatever he was?

"Master…shall_ we…_ execute?"the eidolons inquired expectantly.

Nico was about to answer, but that hesitation had been just long enough for the half-son of Poseidon to put his plan into action. A giant title wave sprang out of nowhere, and hit the eidolons dead on, and they shrieked horrifically in their strange ghost voices. Using the momentous force of the wave, Chrysaor launched himself forward, and at the last second dive rolled to safety. Nico wasn't so lucky. A ten foot wave hit him like a fist, and sent him flying backwards. He slammed into the railing with a sickening _thud!_ and collapsed in a heap on the ground. He nearly passed out, and when he regained consciousness Chrysaor was advancing toward him, laughing hysterically.

Stepping down off the centre stage, he sauntered in no hurry whatsoever towards Nico's prostrate form. Picking him up by the collar of his shirt, he hissed vehemently, "No one can defeat me."

Nico knew he was done for. He didn't risk asking for more of his father than he already had, and besides, what could he do to save him? Send a giant skeletal chariot out of the sky, to head butt the golden jerk? Though that would be rather amusing, Nico doubted that would ever happen.

Just as Chrysaor prepared for the final thrust that would end Nico's life, he felt a sharp, urgent tug in his stomach. In disbelief Nico reach out his hand, and his Stygian iron blade came rocketing out of the earth, and into Nico's open grip narrowly deflecting Chrysaor's blow.

"You lose, you Midas wannabe." Nico growled, and stabbed him right through the eye. The noise that emanated from his mouth was so horrible that Nico's head hurt. It was the sound of an enraged and wounded animal in its death throes. Nico dropped to the ground, and immediately ran for the steps leading up onto the stage. Once Chrysaor had gotten over the initial shock and confusion of having been stabbed in the eye, he wasted no time to join Nico, who was feeling more confident by the minute.

"You're fast, son of Hades," Chrysaor admitted grudgingly, "But not fast enough!" and with one hand still covering his bleeding eye, the son of Medusa charged infuriatingly, and swung his sword haphazardly, as well as blindly, his snake hair heads hissing in anger. Nico knew that Chrysaor was getting sloppier and less rational in his battle tactics, (Nico had assumed his first charge was to test Nico's battle skills,) but guessed that he still would not fall for the same trick twice, so he just barely feinted a roll, but instead sidestepped, as Chrysaor came barrelling past him like a freight train, cursing in Ancient Greek. When he had finally checked himself, he was breathing heavily, and wiping profusely at his eye, Chrysaor had tired of the bull fight maneuver Instead, he simply jumped as high as he could, and slammed the blade of his enchanted gold weapon into the wooden planking below. Nico easily avoided this, and scrambled up his back like a monkey, attempting to pry open his helmet and stab him in the neck. Realizing a split-second before he attempted it, that that would be rather fatal and stupid, and wasn't to thrilled about the idea of playing "bucking Bronco" with a man in full golden armour, he grabbed him in a choke-hold instead, and hung on for dear life. He had been attempting to slit Chrysaor's throat, but the golden-armoured man merely just bellowed in outrage, and pulled Nico off his back and threw him like a rag doll across the stage. The pain in Nico's back increased, and once gain he was stuck in the fetal position. This time however, he was ready. Raising his hand up, a chariot burst out from beneath the surface of the Amphitheatre, pulled by two skeletal horses, and yes, kicked Chrysaor in the back of the noggin. He collapsed with a loud "_Oomph!" _and Nico immediately hopped in the flying mobile, calling to his stunned friends,

"Come on! All aboard the Nico express before Mr. Goldilocks there gets up."

Climbing into the chariot, the three friends took off, with Nico in the front riding, and Jason and Frank in the back. Soon they were gone, leaving a howling, cursing and wounded warrior in both body and pride, alone in the deserted Ampitheatre. Nico did his best to drive, but he soon realized how exhausted he was, and let Frank take the reins, (after all he was a son of Mars, but he still didn't look all two happy about it,) and curled up into a ball. Before he drifted off to sleep, Jason nudged him, and said, "You did a good job back there."

Nico was surprised, and looked up at Jason saying, "I thought you hated me."

Jason snorted. "Me? Hate you? Nah, of course not! You see...it's something you said earlier, uh about-" Jason turned his face away, and Nico could swear he was blushing.

"About what?" Nico asked, but then it dawned on him; of course! Nico had said that Percy was a better demigod than Jason! No wonder he had been acting so weird towards him. That and combined with the whole Percy, Annabeth thing, he could understand why Jason would fell the way he did.

"It's okay man," Nico said. "I'm sorry about what I said, it's just I've known Percy so long and now that he's gone-" His voice cracked. "Well I'm _really _sorry about what I said, honestly. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Truce?"

The ghost of a smile hovered on Jason's lip, one of which had been scarred when he had tried to eat a staple when he was little. "Truce. And hey, of what I've seen of him, Percy's a really cool guy. Don't worry we'll get them back. I can understand how you think he's cooler than me and all that. And just for the record, I was going to help you when Chrysaor had in you in his clutches; but then I saw you had it under control."

Was that admiration in his voice? Jealously? Nico couldn't be sure, but he appreciated the comment about Percy. "Oh yeah," Jason added quickly. "I was also ready to save you the second time as well, and Frank was in it with me. He doesn't think your _so_ bad by the way." Wiping away a threatening tear, Nico asked smugly, "What do you think about that Frank?"

He muttered something unintelligible, and Jason said, "I think he said he said he agrees with me."

They both laughed. Then, with exhaustion finally setting in, Nico settled down once more. Thanks dad, he silently prayed to his father, and then fell asleep to the sound of the wind in his ears, and the soft whinny of horses.


	2. Chapters 3 and 4

III

Nico

**Leo hadn't been telling the complete truth; **they weren't exactly _in_ Lecce, more like they were hovering over it, but even from the air it was an impressive sight.

"It-it-it's beautiful!" Hazel gasped in definite awe this time. Nico had to agree.

Though it was nowhere near the size or splendour of Rome, it made up for it in its beautiful architecture, and its defining structures. From where they were situated in the sky, Nico could see for miles, and could make out dozens of churches, hundreds of piazzas, and-was that a castle? Nico turned his eyes toward the baby blue iridescent sea, and felt a wave of sadness. If only Percy were here. He quickly wiped away a tear with the hem of his sleeve, before anybody noticed.

"Ok Leo," Jason said begrudgingly. "This is cool. This is definitely cool."

"Yeah, nice pit stop Valdez!" the Coach commented in a serious tone. Then, grinning like a wild goat and with an enthusiastic first pump, said, "Now let's go break some stuff!"

"Uh Coach," Leo said sheepishly. "About that…yeah, actually you're gonna be sitting this one out-sorry."

The martial arts cage match watching satyr's face turned beet red, as he processed what The Latin-American demigod had just said. "No _way,_ Valdez! Not this time!" he cried outraged, swinging his club in Leo's general direction. Deftly ducking the blow, he countered hastily, "C'mon Coach lay off! What I meant to say is that I need someone like you to watch over the ship while I work on the ship! Honest!"

Once it dawned on him what Leo had said, Gleeson Hedge stopped his battle-crazed rampage and looked at Leo first in confusion, and then as what Leo had told him dawned on the satyr, he nodded solemnly. "Right! I'll protect you from monsters and tourists, while you do your Hephaestus thing!"

"I hope he was joking about the tourists." Leo muttered.

"What was that Valdez?"

"Just talking about how you should watch out for those tourists."

Hedge grinned, showing that he still hadn't brushed his teeth yet, and said, "Will do Valdez, will do!"

"Guys," Piper said, interrupting their odd man/goat exchange. 'We should get going."

"Piper's right," Nico said, who had been silent until now. "We don't have all day, and besides; we don't know what Percy and Annabeth have to face right now down there." He emphasized this by pointing down at the ancient Roman city below.

Leo looked around uncomfortably. If no one had known what he had been talking about earlier, now they did. Sorry to burst your bubble, Nico thought grimly. But we have a quest to finish.

"Nico's right." Jason said with a struggle, like he was thinking, _Stop acting like a leader; that's my job you punk. _"We've got to get going if we're going to get any day light at all."

The sun was pretty low in the sky, so Nico assumed it was already late afternoon or early evening, (as if they had traveled back in time or something; of course, even by demigod standards, that was highly improbable, but not impossible) though he couldn't be sure; if they were going to get anything done, it was now or never.

Leo nodded thoughtfully. "Right. I'll land the ship in that castle-looking place over there, and then we'll make a plan for the afternoon.

As they came in for a landing, the aerial oars manoeuvring them toward an open flat of land within the fortress boundaries, Hazel pulled her brother aside, and whispered, "Nico, I talked to Frank on our way here, and the reason he's treating you so funny is because he's scared of you Nico. You see, during our quest with Percy, his father Mars gave him this staff that raised this _spartus, _and it really freaked him out. Just wanted to let you know that's all."

Nico thought about that. He looked towards the big guy, who averted his eyes guiltily. So he had assumed correctly. Nico _had_ shaken him up, liek he did most people he met. That, combined with his own self-blame, resulted in his bad attitude. That didn't explain Jason though. Maybe Nico was overreacting. Jason hadn't really treated him all that bad. But right now that didn't matter. All that mattered was Leo could put upgrades on the ship in the least possible time as possible, so they could reach Epirus on the right day, whichever one it would be.

Nico had been so lost in thought, (as usual) that he hadn't realized Leo had been talking, yet again ignoring Leo, for the second time that day.

He decided to listen in, assuming what Leo was saying was important.

"I could have landed us closer to the sea," Leo explained, his eyes glued onto the helm's monitor screen. "But instead I thought it would be safer to land us more inland, with Keto's monsters and all still on the loose, considering we don't know how dangerous the Adriatic is even with the sonar on, and how powerful the Parthenos's aura really is. I know that Gaea is more powerful when we're on the ground, but besides; it gives me more things to do in the meantime, and hopefully no monsters will attack, assuming our luck still holds."

Nico wasn't exactly sure what Leo was talking about, considering their "luck" so far had been pretty much non-existent , but he realized Leo was still shaken up over their last experience on the water, whether anyone blamed it on him or not, so he decided not to mention it.

As they got closer to the medieval looking building, Nico realized it was some sort of park or hotel. He could see mortals lounging around reading books at small round coffee tables with those little umbrellas sticking up to shade them from the sun, people walking their dogs, or sitting on park benches chatting. He could only hope that they wouldn't notice the gargantuan Ancient Greek trireme slowly descending upon them.

Oddly enough no one did. Well _no one_ was putting it a bit too optimistically. Occasionally people would gawk at the sky, but they didn't seem to do anything about it. Maybe they saw an airplane, or an inflatable blimp. It was hard to know what mortals saw through the mysterious force called the Mist.

Finally, the ship settled down in the middle of an open veranda, next to a Renaissance-style turret and everybody met up on deck. It was decided that the three guys, Nico, Frank and Jason would team up together, and the two girls, Piper and Hazel would go together. Frank scowled at this prospect, but Jason kept his face neutral, so Nico couldn't determine how he felt on the matter. Leo and Coach would stay behind while Leo put his upgrades onto the ship.

Leo pulled a map out of his tool belt and handed to each of the two groups, when Frank pointed out, "Hey, why didn't we use one of these last time?!"

To which Leo replied blushing, and shuffling his feet awkwardly,"Oops! I kind of forgot about that."

They had to get Coach Hedge, Jason and Nico, to restrain the solid Chinese Canadian teenager from beating Leo to a pulp.

After that was dealt with, Leo lowered the boarding ramp, and the five demigods exited the trireme into a warm, but not all that uncomfortable atmosphere. "I'll keep in touch," Leo reassured them, on their way down. "If you get into any trouble, just send me an Iris message, and I'll be on my way." He winked slyly, and everybody laughed.

Once going down the ramp of the ship, Nico felt much better. Being stuck on a floating ship for hours on end was not one of the things on Nico's top ten list of favourite things to do. He realized that he had become much too philosophical recently, and brooded too much, and needed to be more focused on the matters at hand. Maybe that's why people acted so funny around him. Nico shook his head amusedly. He was doing it again.

It took them a little while to find their way around the castle-like place, and they got a few strange looks from the mortals there, but finally the three demigod boys emerged onto the streets of Lecce.

The first thing Nico noticed was that it was a lot like Rome, but nothing at all like Rome. Everything here felt more compact or closer together, and it had more of a lazy small-town feel, and almost felt more modern than Rome. Not to say that that was true; (according to the map, Lecce stretched all the way to the sea,) and was over two-thousand years old, but it sure felt that way.

After winding their way through some busy streets, and narrowly avoiding being hit by oncoming traffic and constantly dodging people's vespas, they decided to eat out some place using some mortal money that Leo had given them for the rest of the day. They ate at a small corner side restaurant called _Mario's _(which Nico found quite ironic,) and Jason asked the waiter there some good places for an average tourist to check out.

At first he seemed to look uncomfortable telling unaccompanied minors where to go, but finally he said in a thick Italian accent, "The Roman Amphitheatre is not too far from here." He circled it on the map in blue pen, and once they had finished their meal, (Nico had pasta, Frank had spaghetti, and Jason had some pepperoni and olive pizza,) they made their way there.

Fortunately, it wasn't all that far off from where they had eaten, so they didn't get too lost, though they had to ask direction once or twice from friendly strangers. So far there had been no monster attacks, which was surprisingly optimistic, but Nico couldn't help shake the feeling like they were being watched. None of the three pre-adolescent guys talked while they walked, all of them being too preoccupied with their own thoughts, but all the same there was an uneasy silence in the air.

Nico was glad when they finally found what they had been looking for. Surrounded on three sides by long wide cobblestone roads, the Amphitheatre was nothing all that spectacular in demigod standards, with arches, broken pillars and broken stairways shooting out of the grassy/earthy ground, where the foundations of the Amphitheatre had been in days long past. A large ring of seats lay in one of the corners, and a sizeable brick building encircled one section of the Amphitheatre, with the words, ISTITUTO NAZIONALE ASSICURAZIONI inscribed on it in black letters, which Nico eventually translated roughly to, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR INSURANCE. There was a modern clock tower connected to this, and facing one side of this building there was a limestone arch, flanked by a large column resting on a pedestal, with a Roman bishop holding a sceptre in his left hand, while his right hand was raised palm out,and index finger crooked slightly in a sign of blessing.

The three young half-bloods leaned nonchalantly against the railing, which had stone X's as supports, some more worn than others, and looked at the ancient sight before them. Nico realized Annabeth would have loved this, and that just brought a bitter taste to his mouth. He wondered how Percy and Annabeth were faring, and how Annabeth's ankle was holding up. Nico really hadn't gotten to know Annabeth over the years. But what he had seen of her, he knew that she could hold her own in a fight.

Finally Jason spoke up, breaking Nico's train of thought. "We can't stay here all day. Come on, we should start to head back and see if Leo's done with the ship-"

Jason turned to leave, then froze, pulled out his golden _denarius_ coin, tossed it in his hand and it turned into his trusty Imperial golden _gladius_. Frank drew his sword also, and Nico reached for his Stygian iron blade, and cursing realized he had left it aboard the _Argo II. _ He turned to see who this new foe could be.

Standing in front of them was a man dressed in full golden armour, with a quite terrifyingly accurate gorgon's head helmet, and a sword that looked very similar to Jason's. He leaned apathetically on the hilt of this, as if he had all the time in the world, which considering the mere size of him, he probably did.

"Not _you_ again!" Jason growled, pointing his weapon at the golden figure's chest. "I thought we lost you in the Mediterranean!"

Nico vaguely remember Hazel mentioning something about this very same warrior, but his brain was suddenly very scattered and confused.

"Yes, Jason Grace," he said in a weird, sibilant, middle-eastern sounding accent. "It is I, Chrysaor!"

Frank suddenly seemed to panic, and turned into a dolphin, which Nico thought didn't really help their situation all that much, and would have been funny, if they weren't in the middle of a city, with no water in sight whatsoever.

Chrysaor laughed, a harsh grating sound, and said menacingly, "Is that the best you can do, Frank Zhang? I will bring her head back to Gaea on a silver platter!"

"Wait a minute," said Jason, as if finally cluing in to something they had all missed. "Last time we faced you us you had your stupid dolphin friends. But now you face us alone; why is that?"

Chrysaor growled angrily, "You impudent young hero, behold, Chrysaor's newly improved army!"

The "Golden Boy" snapped his fingers, and immediately all the tourists around the three demigods eyes turned golden and lifeless. They turned toward them, and in unison said in a metallic, grating voice, "_Jason Grace, Frank Zhang, Nico di Angelo, prepare to face your death._"

"Eidolons," Jason said his voice dry.

Frank, now human, gulped nervously. Nico had briefly heard about the stupid possessing spirits, and how Piper had done an exorcism with her charmspeak on Jason, Percy and Leo, and forced the eidolons possessing them to swear on the River Styx never to posses another one of the crew again; Nico now suddenly hoped he was on that list as well.

"Yes, fear the minions of Gaea!" Chrysaor said victoriously. "Now see the fate of your two comrades in Tartarus and despair!"

Before anyone could react to that shocking statement, Chrysaor took his sword and stabbed it into the cobblestone road, then withdrew it just as quickly. At first nothing happened. Then slowly but surely, a dark scene appeared in the ground. With a start Nico saw that he was looking into Tartarus, and two small figures were stumbling their way through that evil place. Suddenly the image focused up close, and Nico could see the frightened faces of Percy and Annabeth painstakingly making their way through the darkness, illuminated by the glow of Percy's sword, Riptide, and Annabeth's bronze dagger.

Behind them a large bloated shape followed them hissing in absolute hatred. Percy quickly pivoted and turned to face the thing, swinging Riptide as hard as he could against the monster's skull. It disintegrated into powdered dust, but immediately began to reform. Percy cursed and turned to Annabeth. She looked terrible. Her face was completely pale. She was scratched and bleeding in multiple places, and Percy didn't look much better. She tried to go on, but tripped, couldn't regain her balance, and fell, losing her grip on her dagger, which clattered away into the darkness. She cried out in pain, and Percy helped her up. By this time, the giant monster-was that a spider? - had mostly put itself back together. Nico wanted to yell at them to look out, but he knew he could do nothing but watch in horror as the spider shot a strand of web at Annabeth's broken leg, and snagged her by it. She screamed in terror and agony, and Percy hacked at the web, but he was to slow. Annabeth was gone. Chrysoar swiped his balde through the image and it dissolved, and the cobblestone reformed, and Chrysaor was standing over them, smirking in distaste. The last thing Nico saw before the scene faded into nothing, was Percy holding both Riptide, and Annabeth's dagger, and plunging into the darkness.

Nico felt a sudden rage well up inside him. Who did this jerk-face think he was showing them their worst fears and acting so tough and heartless about the whole situation in general? Before he could act on this impulse however, and probably do something rash and stupid that he'd regret later, Jason whispered to him out of the corner of his mouth, "We can take him together Nico, don't worry."

"Not with all those eidolons around," Nico pointed out. How could they get rid of all those eidolons without hurting the mortals? The ghost of an idea began to filter into Nico's cunning mind. It was a crazy idea sure, but it might just work.

"I will face him," Nico said, a little louder than he had meant to.

"What was that?" Chrysaor said, focusing on Nico's face.

"I said," he replied, stepping forward." I will face you. We'll be one on one and it'll be to the death. I swear this on the River Styx."

Before he could go nay further, Jason grabbed his shoulder, and whispered more urgently now, "Uh Nico? Are you sure about this? You do realize-"

"Yeah I know," Nico said, shrugging off Jason's hand. "Don't worry I've got this. I am a son of Hades after all." Nico smiled sheepishly at Jason, and he seemed to relax a little bit. Even Frank, who hadn't liked Nico from the beginning, seemed to look a little less worried, which just made Nico feel guilty. Why was he doing this? It's not like he had anything to prove. Yes, the other side of his brain said. You do. Whatever the reason was, he would still go through with it, even if it would claim his life. Who knows, maybe even his father would be watching him. He doubted that was so, but he still willed himself to believe so.

"If you need any back up," Jason murmured in his ear. "If I see Chrysaor is going to win, swear or not, I'm going to help you know matter what. Got it Frank?" Jason looked up at the son of Mars, his eyes pleading him to say yes. Frank must of had good ears, or could read minds/emotions really well, because he muttered back,

"Sure, whatever." But he didn't he didn't look too thrilled about it.

Nico was actually kind of surprised, (which he really shouldn't be,) that Frank would actually do that for him, even if Jason made him. Maybe he still felt guitly aobut treating Nico so badly. He wondered now more than ever what his sister had talked to Frank about, that made him like htis.

"I've got this." Nico said, then took a deep breath, and moved closer towards his opponent.

"Do you agree to my terms?" Nico asked.

Chrysaor hissed, and Nico almost thought that he could feel his fear, but as quickly as it had come it was gone, and he answered confidently, "I agree to your terms, Nico di Angelo. Though you are not Percy Jackson," (at that point he spit out the words as if they were poison) "I will face you anyway. I never step down to a challenge. However, I see you have no weapon. I will not fight an unarmed opponent."

"Well that's just too bad for you then isn't it?" Nico snapped, grinding his teeth together impatiently. "Will you fight me or not Fish boy?"

That did it. Chryasor snarled angrily and said, "Very well then son of Hades, scum of the Underworld. Your father will not save you _this _time!"

He snapped his fingers again, but this time instead of eidolons, the Amphitheatre rebuilt itself, piece by piece, brick by brick. Nico was suddenly standing on a lightly sanded, beige-coloured limestone semi-oval, Chrysaor directly across from him. The eidolons lined the seats, and Jason and Frank sat at the end closest him, their bodies tensed, ready for action in case the fight went awry or not to their liking.

"I will enjoy making you bleed, death spawn. Prepare to die!"

"Your move," Nico said, looking Jason in the eyes. He nodded. He was as ready as they all were.

Suddenly Jason's face was masked with terror, and he yelled over the hissing of the possessed, "Look out!"

Nico turned on the soles of his feet, just to see Chrysaor making his way towards him at a starling speed.

Here goes nothing, he thought grimly.

Chrysaor charged.

IV

Nico

**Right before Chrysaor came down him, **Nico made his move. Throwing himself down, he slid through Chrysaor's armoured legs. He was momentarily confused, but not for long. Propelled forward by the force of his charge Chrysaor went flying out of the ring, and smashed into a column, with a loud yell of rage. However, he was not fazed. Struggling upwards, he dusted himself off and laughed amusedly,

"Is that all you can muster di Angelo!" He leaped, higher than should have been possible, and landed feet first on the stage.

"And now for the grand finale!" Chrysaor said sweeping his hand dramatically in the air. Nico went into a fighting stance and Chrysaor changed tactics. He circled Nico, looking for an open spot, which there was a lot of. Swinging his blade experimentally, Chryasor began to move his sword at an alarming rate, spinning it in large blurred controlled circles like he was hewing wheat in a field, and getting ever closer to his target with each pass of his blade.

Nico suddenly felt naked and useless. He wished more than ever that he had a sword like Percy's which returned to his pocket when he lost it. But he didn't. He had wanted to put this part of the plan into action at a later point, but it was starting to look like he was running out of options. Raising his hands into the sky and swaying back in forth as if in a trance he cried authoritatively in Ancient Greek, "Eidolons! Spirits of the dead! Answer my call! Come to my aid!"

At first, nothing happened. Chrysaor laughed mockingly, saying, "Ha! You fool! You cannot control the minions of Gaea!"

Please dad, Nico pleaded. Please help me in my time of need.

Chrysaor had become more cautious, but was getting dangerously close. Nico could feel the air around him being disturbed by each arc of sword, which was not a good sign.

This is it, Nico thought bitterly. I've failed.

As if out of the blue there was a loud groan as of a sudden wind, and then Nico was very far from alone. The eidolons hovered around him in spirit form, hissing with a sound like the grinding of metal, their pale golden eyes surveying the scene as if it were not unfamiliar to them. Hundreds of eyes turned upon Nico, and he couldn't help the shiver he felt go up his spine. Man, sometimes his powers were really darn creepy.

"_We serve the master of the dead; the 'Ghost_ _King'! _"they intoned in their hollow voices, staring deep into the son of Hades's eyes, as if they were looknig deep into his soul, or waiting for a command. Nico shuddered. Yeah, he was pretty creepy all right. Silently he thanked his father, then to the eidolons he said, "Eidolons, fulfil your oath and fight this man, and you will be rewarded."

This was followed by a harsh grinding noise, and then the eidolons went to work, swarming over Chrysaor unmercifully. Puzzled mortals tried to leave their seats, but Chrysaor snapped his fingers and said, "Eidolons possess!" But if the eidolons even heard him, nothing happened, and the free spectators continued to walk around in a daze.

"Nooooooo!" Chrysaor wailed and let out an ear-splitting shriek, as he was raised into the air above the Amphitheatre by the spirits. "This cannot be! The Earth-Mother promised me! She promised!"

"Gaea has no control over the air, Golden Boy!" Nico growled. "Eidolons-drop him!"

"Nooooo!" he continued to plead, then, "Wait! I have information; information about your friends!"

Nico hesitated. He looked over at Frank and Jason who were stunned with shock and probably horror; he didn't blame them. What if Chrysaor was bluffing though? It wasn't unlikely. And besides; he didn't know which friends Chrysoar was speaking of, (most like Percy and Annabeth, but he wasn't one hundred percent positive on that fact.) Should he trust this monster/man/whatever he was?

"Master…shall_ we…_ execute?"the eidolons inquired expectantly.

Nico was about to answer, but that hesitation had been just long enough for the half-son of Poseidon to put his plan into action. A giant title wave sprang out of nowhere, and hit the eidolons dead on, and they shrieked horrifically in their strange ghost voices. Using the momentous force of the wave, Chrysaor launched himself forward, and at the last second dive rolled to safety. Nico wasn't so lucky. A ten foot wave hit him like a fist, and sent him flying backwards. He slammed into the railing with a sickening _thud!_ and collapsed in a heap on the ground. He nearly passed out, and when he regained consciousness Chrysaor was advancing toward him, laughing hysterically.

Stepping down off the centre stage, he sauntered in no hurry whatsoever towards Nico's prostrate form. Picking him up by the collar of his shirt, he hissed vehemently, "No one can defeat me."

Nico knew he was done for. He didn't risk asking for more of his father than he already had, and besides, what could he do to save him? Send a giant skeletal chariot out of the sky, to head butt the golden jerk? Though that would be rather amusing, Nico doubted that would ever happen.

Just as Chrysaor prepared for the final thrust that would end Nico's life, he felt a sharp, urgent tug in his stomach. In disbelief Nico reach out his hand, and his Stygian iron blade came rocketing out of the earth, and into Nico's open grip narrowly deflecting Chrysaor's blow.

"You lose, you Midas wannabe." Nico growled, and stabbed him right through the eye. The noise that emanated from his mouth was so horrible that Nico's head hurt. It was the sound of an enraged and wounded animal in its death throes. Nico dropped to the ground, and immediately ran for the steps leading up onto the stage. Once Chrysaor had gotten over the initial shock and confusion of having been stabbed in the eye, he wasted no time to join Nico, who was feeling more confident by the minute.

"You're fast, son of Hades," Chrysaor admitted grudgingly, "But not fast enough!" and with one hand still covering his bleeding eye, the son of Medusa charged infuriatingly, and swung his sword haphazardly, as well as blindly, his snake hair heads hissing in anger. Nico knew that Chrysaor was getting sloppier and less rational in his battle tactics, (Nico had assumed his first charge was to test Nico's battle skills,) but guessed that he still would not fall for the same trick twice, so he just barely feinted a roll, but instead sidestepped, as Chrysaor came barrelling past him like a freight train, cursing in Ancient Greek. When he had finally checked himself, he was breathing heavily, and wiping profusely at his eye, Chrysaor had tired of the bull fight maneuver Instead, he simply jumped as high as he could, and slammed the blade of his enchanted gold weapon into the wooden planking below. Nico easily avoided this, and scrambled up his back like a monkey, attempting to pry open his helmet and stab him in the neck. Realizing a split-second before he attempted it, that that would be rather fatal and stupid, and wasn't to thrilled about the idea of playing "bucking Bronco" with a man in full golden armour, he grabbed him in a choke-hold instead, and hung on for dear life. He had been attempting to slit Chrysaor's throat, but the golden-armoured man merely just bellowed in outrage, and pulled Nico off his back and threw him like a rag doll across the stage. The pain in Nico's back increased, and once gain he was stuck in the fetal position. This time however, he was ready. Raising his hand up, a chariot burst out from beneath the surface of the Amphitheatre, pulled by two skeletal horses, and yes, kicked Chrysaor in the back of the noggin. He collapsed with a loud "_Oomph!" _and Nico immediately hopped in the flying mobile, calling to his stunned friends,

"Come on! All aboard the Nico express before Mr. Goldilocks there gets up."

Climbing into the chariot, the three friends took off, with Nico in the front riding, and Jason and Frank in the back. Soon they were gone, leaving a howling, cursing and wounded warrior in both body and pride, alone in the deserted Ampitheatre. Nico did his best to drive, but he soon realized how exhausted he was, and let Frank take the reins, (after all he was a son of Mars, but he still didn't look all two happy about it,) and curled up into a ball. Before he drifted off to sleep, Jason nudged him, and said, "You did a good job back there."

Nico was surprised, and looked up at Jason saying, "I thought you hated me."

Jason snorted. "Me? Hate you? Nah, of course not! You see...it's something you said earlier, uh about-" Jason turned his face away, and Nico could swear he was blushing.

"About what?" Nico asked, but then it dawned on him; of course! Nico had said that Percy was a better demigod than Jason! No wonder he had been acting so weird towards him. That and combined with the whole Percy, Annabeth thing, he could understand why Jason would fell the way he did.

"It's okay man," Nico said. "I'm sorry about what I said, it's just I've known Percy so long and now that he's gone-" His voice cracked. "Well I'm _really _sorry about what I said, honestly. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Truce?"

The ghost of a smile hovered on Jason's lip, one of which had been scarred when he had tried to eat a staple when he was little. "Truce. And hey, of what I've seen of him, Percy's a really cool guy. Don't worry we'll get them back. I can understand how you think he's cooler than me and all that. And just for the record, I was going to help you when Chrysaor had in you in his clutches; but then I saw you had it under control."

Was that admiration in his voice? Jealously? Nico couldn't be sure, but he appreciated the comment about Percy. "Oh yeah," Jason added quickly. "I was also ready to save you the second time as well, and Frank was in it with me. He doesn't think your _so_ bad by the way." Wiping away a threatening tear, Nico asked smugly, "What do you think about that Frank?"

He muttered something unintelligible, and Jason said, "I think he said he said he agrees with me."

They both laughed. Then, with exhaustion finally setting in, Nico settled down once more. Thanks dad, he silently prayed to his father, and then fell asleep to the sound of the wind in his ears, and the soft whinny of horses.


	3. Chapter 5 and 6

V

Hazel

**Things were going okay until the demon pigeon lady attacked. ** Hazel and Piper had been wandering the city of Lecce, nonchalantly going from store to store, perusing over the various items, and delicacies of south-eastern Italy. It had been nice to have a break from the recent series of unfortunate events that had followed the crew of the _Argo II_ over the past few months. They made their way toward a small side café, and sat down for a nice peaceful lunch.

Naturally, that's when things went terribly wrong.

As if out of thin air, a woman dressed in black appeared at their round, circular table, cooling herself with a fan, the color of this matching her feathered dress, which was odd, considering there was a parasol attached to the table itself. She also carried a black leather purse, and would have been beautiful (she had caramel skin like Hazel's, and intense golden eyes, that glinted dangerously beneath her wide-brimmed hat,) if her nose wasn't pointed like a bird's with a large wart on it, and her black hat, which reminded Hazel of a witch. In fact this woman resembled Hazel's mother startlingly, minus the nose and wart of course, which was not a happy thought.

Putting aside her purse she greeted them warmly, in a weird guttural voice, "Hello, my _dears,_" the way she said the word "dears" as if it were a foreign word on her tongue, made Hazel shudder in revulsion. "My mistress told me I might find you here."

"Gaea!" Piper said in accusation. "It was Gaea wasn't it?"

The witch lady chuckled softly, as if that statement amused her. "No my dears, she is not Gaea, not Gaea at all; very far from her in fact. My mistress is none other than the great Athena, wisest of the gods!"

At this point she raised her hands as if expecting something. She clucked in disapproval, muttering, "Alas, my mistress is well…how should I put this? She is… not herself these days. No, she is suffering greatly, especially after hearing the recent news about her daughter."

She paused at this point and scowled at the two demigod girls, her face full of scorn. Piper mouthed out of the side of her mouth "_Alas_?"Hazel shrugged.

"Yes," the odd figure continued, "_Especially _after hearing that ill news. And now, daughter of Hades-"

"Pluto," Hazel corrected automatically.

She waved her hand airily as if shrugging it aside, "Pluto, Hades; same difference. Anyhow, where was I? Ah yes! Behold! Tremble before the minions of Coro-!"

"Uh…ma'am?" A waiter with her hair tied in a bun asked quizzically of her. "Can I take your order?"

The woman in black growled, but it sounded more like an annoyed caw than anything else.

"Yes, yes, of course! I'll have a pepperoni pizza with extra bird feed and two lemonades for the girls." She purred in a totally non-catlike way. "Now be gone with you, I have business to deal with!"

And with that she threw aside her dress and hat, and beneath these she was even more horrible than before, if that was even possible. Instead of a mouth, she had a dark beak, and her eyes had changed color, and now were as black as night, soulless and creepily unnerving, not to mention incredibly frightening. Her hair was made up of raven feathers and from the neck down, she was one of these. She hovered in midair, crowing triumphantly, "Now my dears prepare to face your doom!"

Hazel scanned her surroundings to see if anyone had noticed this new transformation. Nobody had. In fact most were too preoccupied having their late afternoon/early evening coffee, and having light conversation with one other, to notice a giant bird lady in the literal sense of the word.

What had she begun to call herself Coro-something? Hazel racked her brain for all the ancient myths she knew, but she could find nothing. Who was this crazy monster? Why was she attacking them over the others? Then it hit her; (her name that is.) Coronis! Her name was Coronis!

"Yes, my dear!" Coronis cried in triumph, in her harsh grating voice, as if she had guessed Hazel's suspicions, or read her mind, which Hazel was starting not to doubt. "It is I! Coronis, the one who was saved from that upstart Poseidon by Athena my mistress. Coronis, the one who was turned me into a raven, to save my life! And now it is I, Coronis, the bringer of the birds with the bronze beaks, a little gift from Ares, the god of war himself!"

And with that she let out an ear-splitting shriek, and hundreds of pigeon-looking creatures came flocking towards her call, none other than the Stymphalian birds, creations of Ares the war god.

"But Coronis!" Piper pleaded, putting a layer of charmspeak into her voice. "It wasn't our fault, really. You have to trust me!"

The raven-like creature cocked her head to one side, as if considering this. Then she shook her head, as if waking up from a daze. "No, your voice may be soothing to my ears, my dear, but Athena's orders are _very _specific, and very clear. I am might to take care of you while that Poseidon's spawn," she said choking on the words, "Chrysaor, takes care of your _other_ friends, that son of Ares, Zeus, and Hades. Now attack my pretties, attack!"

A cold feeling of dread crept up Hazel's spine. What was going on? Where was Nico? Piper choked. "Wait a minute-Chrysaor?! You mean he's…alive?"

Coronis snorted and waved her wing dismissively. "Of course he's alive my dear, and by the look of things, your precious brother is already doomed."

There was a wild glint in her eye, a crazy look. Hazel couldn't help but wonder, if her "mistress's'" schizophrenic state had made her become this _wrong_, but it didn't matter; what did matter was that a posse of flesh-eating carrion were descending on them rapidly, and they didn't have much time to lose, and that her brother might be in trouble. It was at that moment that the waitress decided to show up. She was carrying a tray with the two lemonades and the pizza, as well as a little tin of seeds, (Hazel had no idea where she had gotten those from,) but when she saw Coronis her eyes grew wide and she dropped the contents and went hurriedly running back into the restaurant.

"Tsk, Tsk," Coronis clucked her beak in disapproval. "She ruined perfectly good bird feed."

"What have you done with my brother?!" Hazel cried in desperation, stalling for time. "Where is he now?"

"You want to see your brother's fate?" the bird lady asked, losing patience, as shown through the grinding of her beak, "Look upon it in horror, Hazel Lévesque, and tremble before the might of Gaea!"

The bird lady threw a golden drachma out of her purse into a nearby fountain, and aiming a mirror towards its surface creating a rainbow, she chanted soothingly, "O Iris, goddess of all rainbows, will you please humbly accept this glorious offering, and show me Nico di Angelo."

At first nothing happened, and then a scene shimmered into being, and Hazel gasped in horror. What she saw was her brother, completely unarmed, facing the "Golden Boy" on some sort of stone half-oval that was surrounded on one end by ringed seats, and he wasn't doing all that well. He tried to scramble up Chrysaor's back, but the experienced warrior simply plucked him off and threw him across the stage with an angry roar, Nico landing painfully on his sternum. Hazel wanted to say something, anything that could help him; but she knew it would not be all that useful, and would just distract Nico from the fight. The image dissolved into nothingness, by Coronis slashing through it with her talons, just as Chrysaor was about to stab Nico in the chest, and Jason and Frank got up ready to fight.

Hazel realized she had been crying, and Piper's face was pale. People were definitely starting to pay attention now, considering that the sky was now completely blotted out by a swarm of Stymphalians, eyeing the two demigods hungrily.

"As you can see," Coronis hissed venomously, "Your friends are doomed, and soon you will be too."

The waitress had returned, but now with a man, in a black and white suit, and she was gawking and pointing at the ugly form of Coronis, the raven woman. The guy who was wearing the suit flipped up the top of his cell-phone and snapped a quick shot of Coronis in mdi-flgith. Hazel had no idea what the mortals saw, (maybe a giant raven or something,) but it couldn't have been much better.

The two heroes had to react fast, before someone innocent got hurt.

Hazel reached for her _spatha_, which had been strapped to her side, but was no longer there. Cursing she realized that it was lying right underneath Coronis' chair, meaning she must have taken it somehow while hazel wasn't watching. She could always use her powers to grab her sword, but Coronis was too far away for it to do much good and besides; if she launched it, it would take all her will power to get it back.

So instead she did the next best thing; she concentrated as hard as she could and made every single piece of cutlery at every table come to her call; then she launched every last one at Coronis. That's when all hell broke loose; the demonic raven bird thing that was Coronis shrieked in pure hatred and pain, and immediately the Stymphalian birds answered her call. Hundreds of them came swooping down, their glittering eyes staring down hungrily at the prospect of demigod flesh.

Knocking over their table, Hazel grabbed both her spatha, Piper's dagger Katoptris, and both the girl's backpacks. Tossing Piper her weapon she yelled, "Run!" at the top of her lungs, and they took off among the screaming mortals lost in the midst of the chaos.

Running down alleyways and side streets, the girls didn't stop for anything; cars swerved crazily down roads, drivers honked their horns and swore angrily at them in Italian; yet they kept on running, for it was either obey mortal street smarts, or get gruesomely pecked to death by the hellish birds that were following them, hot on their scent.

After running for what seemed like miles, avoiding flying feather arrows, that trained death from the sky, they collapsed underneath a protective, tiled awning, the pigeon-like monstrosities momentarily losing sight and smell of them.

Breathing heavily, their skin ripped in various places from razor sharp beaks, and lucky arrow feathers, Piper gasped hoarsely, "We-have-to-get-back-to-the-Argo-II."

Hazel replied, just as winded, "I-know-but-how-to-get-there-ahead-of-birds?"

Piper slowly forced herself onto her feet, and saying haltingly, "Ar-ion-could-get-us-back-there-fast."

Hazel leapt to her feet, nearly hitting her head on the awning. "You-'re-right! Ar-ion-_can-_and-will-get-us-there-fast!"

Concentrating as hard as she could, she called desperately, _"Arion, _please_ if you're out there, answer me and come and save us!" _

Nothing happened, but Hazel wasn't going to give up on him that easily. Suddenly a loud caw rent the air, and the sound of a multitude of wings flapping in unison, like the sound of machine-gun fire getting ever closer by the minute, snapped the two back to reality.

"Come on!" Piper said, grabbing Hazel's hand. "They're gaining on us!" Not a moment to soon; seconds after they left their shelter, a wave of them came plummeting to earth like suicide bombers, hitting the awning with their beaks with a terrible ear-splitting (and skin-crawling) _whump!_ sound. This was followed by many others that hit the awning with their bronze beaks so fast they reminded Hazel of evil, miniature "Woody Woodpeckers."

When they finally realized that the two demigods were no longer there, (by Coronis knocking a few heads together and berating them fiercely,) they took off and followed in hot pursuit, with Athena's "pet" egging them on to victory. Finally, when Hazel and Piper felt they could go no further, there was a loud whinny, and a blurred object came hurtling towards them like a bullet, scorching the cobblestone road with its incredible speed

"Arion!" Hazel cried in relief, and the light brown horse snorted as if this were an obvious fact. Leaping on to the horse, and helping Piper up last, she whispered in the horse's ear, clinging onto its thick, strong neck, "Take us to the Argo II as fast as you can."

He neighed enthusiastically, and just as they were about to take off, Hazel looked back at Piper and recommended, "You might want to hold on to me." She nodded mutely in acknowledgement, her face unnaturally white.

"Ride, Arion! Ride!" Hazel cried urgently, and with that the wild horse reared up on its hind legs and took off, breaking the sound barrier in two seconds flat. The last thing Hazel heard before they were off was the anguished scream of Coronis, shamed and beyond furious in defeat.

Hazel didn't tell Arion to stop until they had reached the castle-like place; directly at the spot where Leo had parked the gargantuan vessel. She barely had time to admire what Leo had done to the ship. With lightning speed the majestic horse went vertically up the side of the hull, and bounded on deck, neighing as if in defiance of running up crazy angles like that. Hazel thought he might be thinking something like "_Yeah take that gravity!"_ or something of the sort as equally as ridiculous. If only Percy were here to read the horse's mind, (according to him he swore a lot,) then she could no for sure. Percy had been like I brother to her, and she his sister (not like Nico of course, in a different way,) the short time they had met; and now he was gone, maybe forever. She felt a pang of guilt well up inside her; if only, if only, that wouldn't help her get Percy back; only action would. Hazel had to admit though that she felt terrible about the whole situation in general. She should have been more focused and aware. She shook her head absentmindedly. Don't be like that, she reprimanded herself. There was nothing you could do. Still, the "If only's" continued to fly around her head like out of control paper airplanes, even as she reported to a stunned Leo, "Nico's in trouble, and we were followed by a crazy bird lady and about a gazillion Stymphalian birds!"

"Whoa! Whoa! Calm down sister!" Leo said, stepping back and waving his arms in mock agitation. "First of all, Nico's fine, and second of all look BEHIND YOU!"

Hazel did so, and drew in a sharp breath. Flying through the sky was a chariot manned by a frightened Frank holding onto the reins for dear life which were connected to the harnesses of two panicked skeletal horses who blew occasional startled bursts of flame, (which really must have freaked the poor guy out) and behind him in the backseat was Jason swinging his sword like lightning, while literal lightening rained down from the now stormy sky, shocking their assailants, the Stymphalian birds, to keep them from advancing any closer. Hazel secretly wished she could shoot lightening out of the sky, (all _she _had for powers was her stupid curse and uncanny underground abilities,) but she banished that thought immediately. Now was not the time to think about such things; maybe later but not now; now was the time for action. I've been hanging around Nico waaay too much recently. She thought unnecessarily. I need to be more focused on the task at hand. And, (speaking of Nico,) at that exact moment he was fighting for his life against none other than the creepy monster thing herself Coronis, who every time she got to close to him , her feathers got an unnecessary trimming from the unlicensed barber himself, this punishment dolled out by his cold black Stygian iron blade. This, (combined with Jason's gladius, the lightening and the fire,) managed to keep the monsters at bay, but the three demigod boys were slowly tiring, and any second now somebody would slip up, and they would be all…well to put it in its frankest term, (no pun intended,) screwed.

Frightened mortals screamed and gaped open-mouthed at the spectacle, snapping occasional photos, and Hazel wondered for the second time that day what the Mist was showing them, but there was no time for speculation; they had to do something; and do it fast.

"We have to do something! Piper said, genuine worry in her color shifting eyes.

"First of al, we need to get out of here" Hazel pointed out. "Leo, can you get this thing flying?"  
Leo nodded numbly, patting his pants down as they had spontaneously combusted out of nervousness.

In a few moments time the engine roared to life, and the ship began to slow ascend. Arion had already left after Hazel had given him a bar of gold for the ride, and Coach Hedge was already manning ballistae, shouting "Die!" amidst the sounds of the ever-advancing Stymphalian birds. Hazel turned to check on the chariots progress. By now it was pinned with metallic feathers, and Jason and Nico had to be crouched behind their seats to avoid getting hit. Even Frank had to duck once and awhile, but for now the pigeon-like monsters were put off by the fire that was spewing out of the horses' mouths.

When they had finally got within range, Leo yelled above the maelstrom of loud caws, and flapping wings, "Now Coach; fire!"

And he did just that, except instead of just shooting a giant arrow, the coach launched a grappling hook that snagged onto the chariot, and pulled it in towards the ship. With Festus now blowing singeing flames out of his mouth, and the magical aura of the Athena Parthenos, the birds fled in terror, and the chariot came crashing aboard the foredeck, skidding out of control and shooting sparks, finally careening wildly at a sickening angle above the main deck, with a loud and unnerving _scrrreeeech! _

Coronis cawed harshly above the Argo II and swore that she "wasn't done with them yet," and that it "wasn't the last they'd' see of her," and she "would return with tenfold the number of her 'pretties'," and with that accomplished and seemingly satisfied, Coronis, raven woman of Athena, swooped away into the ever setting sun, the Stymphalian birds in tow.

Piper, Leo, and Hazel immediately rushed over the wreckage of the fallen chariot while Coach Hedge jumped up and down in victory, whooping ecstatically fist pumping, and saying things in his triumph like "Yeah, goats rule!" or "That's how you do things Chuck Norris style baby!"

Thankfully nobody was too hurt, (besides Frank who had a minor cut on his forehead, which was easily healed by a few cautious nibbles of ambrosia) and after they had cleared away the debris, and Nico had dismissed the "valiant steeds," they all gathered on the foredeck while Leo managed the wheel, his eyes fixed on the monitor screen at the helm. In other words things were almost back to normal; almost. If only Percy and Annabeth were here, Hazel reminisced bitterly. There she was again, with the "if only's", but somehow it didn't feel quite complete without the others, like pieces of a missing canvas, that could never be replaced, and Hazel couldn't still shake the feeling she was the one to blame. Be positive, she reprimanded herself sternly. Not just for your sake; for everybody's sakes.

To start things off, Leo explained to them all the upgrades he had added onto the ship, including a motorized drill at the prow right underneath Festus's head, "just in case they ever needed to "bring down a mountain, or tunnel underground," or Leo's favourite, "provide dental care to Gaea's teeth." That thought was so ridiculous that they couldn't help but burst out laughing, and it felt good for everyone to be back together again. Next Leo explained that he had installed some landing gear onto the bottom of the craft, so they could get around easier, but everyone voted was highly unnecessary. He had also installed a force-field, automated defence drones, and electric spears, as well as an electrified weighted fishing net, some retractable bat wings for extra stability, and a propeller and an invisible force field, just in case of an attack, but he reassured them that demigods, or (un-dead horses, and old daddy goats,) could pass safely through as long as they matched up with Leo's special DNA scanner that was programmed to the crew, and the crew only. When Hazel asked him where he had gotten all the materials to build these, (especially the force-field, DNA scanner and automatons,) he replied in a confidential whisper as if they were sharing some dark secret, "I just know ways how to get the good stuff to pimp my ride." Hazel couldn't help but laugh at that explanation, especially with Leo winking uncontrollably, like he had something in his eye. She was glad things were no longer awkward between them, after finding out that Leo was her friend Sammy's great-grandson a month ago. She had guessed that Leo had had a crush on her, but that seemed to have worn off now, which she was happy about. "But seriously though," he sighed dreamily, bringing Hazel back to the present. "Those Archimedes spheres are like-the bomb!

"They'd better be after all the trouble we went through to get them." Frank growled, and everybody chuckled at that.

After that was done, Nico and Jason and Frank gave their story of what had happened to them that day, with Nico and Jason doing most of the talking, and Frank shuffling awkwardly back and forth on the soles of his feet, and grunting in acknowledgment now and then. Hazel felt bad for Frank; he of all people besides Nico and her had probably been feeling the worst about losing Percy; her hand went automatically to her jacket pocket, where she always kept Frank's lifeline, that stub of firewood, which of course she wasn't wearing and she felt incredibly guilty about that. What was wrong her lately? No wonder Frank had been treating Nico so bad; he felt that he was being left out somehow. Hazel made a mental note to herself to remember to make it up to him later.

Hazel was especially impresses about the story of him facing Chrysaor unarmed and defenceless, and she shuddered at the thought of the eidolons.

"The question is; what was Chrysaor doing so far inland?" Piper asked matter-of-factly. "And who was he looking for?"

"I think I already know the answer to that," Nico said, giving Hazel a side-long glance. A cold shiver made its way up Hazel's spine. Percy she thought. He was looking for Percy.

A sudden wave of relief welled up inside of Hazel, and without thinking she rushed Nico, and enveloped him in a bear hug, crying joyfully, "Oh Nico, you were so brave, and I'm so glad you're okay!"

Nico returned the hug awkwardly, and then she noticed that Frank was looking down at the ground uncomfortably. "And you to big guy," she said just as enthusiastically, hugging him as well, to which he replied with a few unintelligible mutterings.

"Now that we've told our side of the story," Jason ventured, why not tell us what happened to _you_ now, and what that psychopathic raven thing was about?"

Piper and Hazel alternated perspectives, with Piper doing most of the talking, and Hazel butting in when she missed some important details. Jason nodded thoughtfully at the part about Arion coming to the rescue and said, "He must have really felt the desperation in your voice to have come all the way across the ocean, and through the Mare Nostrum to rescue you. That's impressive," he admitted grudgingly, a look of admiration in his eyes. When they finally had finished with minor interruptions excluded from then on in, Nico shook his head gravely saying, "That's bad news-I mean that Athena has gone that-ahem! No offense and all, off her rocker." He looked up at the sky as if preparing to get turned into an owl, or even worse, a raven, but of course nothing happened, so he continued, "I mean, Stymphalian birds are Ares's 'pets' so to speak, and Ares and Athena have never gotten along all that well, and if Athena has become in league with Gaea…" Nico's voiced trail off, but he had no need to finish what he was going to say, because Jason did so instead.

"If that happens then we're done for," said Jason, summing it up perfectly. " And it can't just be coincidence though that both Chrysaor and Coronis attacked us. They both have something to do with Percy and Annabeth going missing, thouhg I doubt Athena would be that crazy as to join forces with Gaea. Still, we should be far more careful and alert from now on, Athena Parthenos or no," he said, glancing sidelong at Piper. Then on a more optimistic note, "But if we can bring back Percy and Annabeth, then we have a chance-right?" He finished with a hopeful gleam in his eyes. Nico looked at Hazel and then averted his gaze. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes, over Annabeth. All this talk about Athena had just reminded her of her, and now she was gone, with maybe no hope of return. Jason's comment had been like a slap in the face, even though he hadn't meant it to be. "Speaking of the Athena Parthenos," Piper said speaking up for the first time since they had told their half of the story. "Speaking of the Athena Parthenos, what _are_ we going to do with that thing? We can't just take it all the way to Greece can we?" "We can worry about that later," Nico said, sighing heavily, and started to begin in a slow cautious voice, "Guys I've been meaning to tell you this but it's not easy for you to hear so..."

Suddenly Leo turned around, smiling like a maniac, and said before Nico could continue further, "Okay team! Here's the game plan: my original plan was to cross the Adriatic by water, but considering the whole Chrysaor incident, and we're on a tight schedule, and _someone _is a little bit seasick,' "Leo!" Hazel scolded mocking, pushing him playfully. Leo blushed, and continued, "Ahem! Right: As I was saying, until Hazel rudely interrupted me," he scowled at her angrily, which only made her guffaw louder, then cover her mouth, embarrassed. "We'll be flying instead. At least this way we can more easily avoid monster attacks, and even if Miss Bird Face does return with her little _amigos_, Festus can take care of them. Now break's over, sun's a' setting! Sleepy, sleepy time! I'll stop us near to the water considering that we're more decked out, but not too close (don't want any sea monsters attacking of course,)" he said glancing sidelong at Hazel, for some reason unbeknownst to her. "This way we can get started in the morning, all nice and rested. Supreme Admiral Leo, signing off." Leo bowed dramatically, and shuffled comically back to the helm.

A huge weight seemed to have been lifted from Nico's shoulders, and Hazel smiled, realizing Leo had interrupted him on purpose, to keep team morale high, and defocus the attention off Nico, and she appreciated him greatly for that.

She let him know so, by whispering into his ear, "Thank you," to which he replied 'No problem," and continued navigating them ever closer to the sea. Coach seemed to be a bit miffed about Leo giving the orders instead of him, but he just shrugged it off and clopped about hyperactively, swinging his bat every few seconds, as if warding off some new evil.

As the ship slowly but surely descended towards ground level, they all filed below decks, Hazel pulled Frank aside, and said to him sincerely, "Frank, I really do care about you, and I'm sorry I've been such a jerk lately, it's just that I was so worried about Nico for so long, and-"She felt tears beginning to brim in her eyes, and was surprised to feel Frank wipe them away with his large beefy fingers. He then proceeded to open his arms awkwardly, a sheepish half-smile on his baby-like face. With a shock, Hazel relied he wanted to hug her, and she blushed. Oh gods, she had wanted him to do this for a _long_ time. She fell into his arms, and butterflies fluttered around her stomach. Frank slowly caressed her long dark hair, and whispered in her ear, "I forgive you." His fingers on her ear made them tingle slightly, and his warm breath on her cheek felt comforting in a way. Then the moment as soon as it started, was gone, and he let go, and fumbled his way downstairs. Hazel looked one more time around the deck in the failing light, and smiled; maybe things weren't so bad off after all.

She was wrong of course; they were just getting started.

VI

Hazel

**To say that Hazel had a nice restful sleep, **was like saying that Ares was a pacifist, or that Pan was god of pollution; in other words, it was not very restful at all; quite the contrary, in fact. She kept waking up at odd hours of the night, fitfully tossing and turning in her sleep, and constantly breaking out in a cold sweat. She had very few dreams, but the dreams she did have were too weird and bizarre to describe properly, and she forgot them almost immediately.

In one she was a centaur running through the woods hunting a wild stag, but every time she got near her prey it gained a new burst of speed, and dashed off into the woodlands. In another, she was organising a party for a baby Cyclops, but every time she got near to finishing she would get pulled into the oven where she was baking the cake, and Frank was there also, and she could feel the tiny piece of firewood slowly diminishing to nothing, and Frank fading away into dust.

Finally having enough of her feverish state, Hazel got up quietly, slipped into some comfortable night clothes and her woolly jacket, and made her way up onto the main deck. It was quiet and peaceful up there, and the only sounds that could be heard were the raucous snoring of Coach Hedge, leaning upright against his baseball bat, and murmuring softly to himself in his sleep, the dull hum of the engine below decks, and Festus snorting the occasional puff of smoke in his sleep.

Hazel nearly jumped out of her skin as a scrawny, cold hand clamped around her shoulder and her mouth, and pulled her into the shadows beneath some crates of supplies.

She stared up in shock but also minor fright, into the red-eyed, sleep deprived face of Nico di Angelo, who was looking around nervously, as if he felt they were being watched by someone, or even worse some_thing_. If she hadn't known Nico so well, she would have thought that he had gone crazy, but she knew better. Instead Hazel, who had felt she had almost had heart attack, whispered a little too loudly, "Jeez Nico! What did you do that for! What's _wrong _with you?!"

Nico didn't answer but instead peeped up nervously out of cover to spy on the Coach, who was now drooling on the floorboards, (which Hazel found incredibly gross and disgusting,) and waving his club around drowsily, uttering dire threats beneath his breath at some unseen foe.

"Look Hazel," Nico whispered under his breath, so she had to lean in closer to hear what he was saying. "I couldn't sleep, and I wanted to talk to you alone about some things. However, since Mr. Kung Fu goat man over there," he said, pointing at the dozing satyr, "decided to umm…how should I put this? Fall asleep on the job, (and trust me I _really _didn't want to wake him up to find out what his reaction would be,) then I thought we could sneak off the boat, just you and me, uh…alone, I guess, and you know-together."

He looked away as quickly as could. In the dark she couldn't tell what Nico's face looked like, (considering it was now turned form her view,) but she sure could feel her cheeks staring to flush, which was really, really stupid of her. Nico was her brother, even if they only were half-related. She felt absolutely no attraction towards him, and she was nearly one hundred percent positive that this feeling was mutual. Not that he was ugly or anything, just the whole Hades/Pluto thing kind of made it off-limits for them to even think about dating; and besides, Hazel already had a boyfriend. However, she couldn't help but wonder if Nico had a crush on her. Her suspicions had been aroused once or twice, but she hadn't thought much about it; there was no real need to. Of course that was a ridiculous notion, and she immediately forced herself to forbid the thought. Nico just wanted to talk to her; Alone. In the dark. Together. Why was she attacking so immature about this?

"Of course we can Nico," she said with compassionate sincerity in her voice, grasping her hands in Nico's. "Come on, let's go before the Coach wakes up, and decides to break something. The last time he found out that someone had broken curfew well, that's just say he wasn't too happy about it."

Nico smiled wryly, his face lit up by a sliver of moonlight, a mischievous look in his wild eyes.

"Then it's a date." And with that Hazel and Nico slid overboard down a large incline of rock Hazel had raised from the ground, which she then made vanish as quietly as possible, and the two snuck off into the darkness. They _didn't_ notice however, the small goat-like figure that followed them, silently clopping his way into the night.

Once they had assumed that they were far away enough from the Argo II, they slipped into a nearby gas station that Nico unlocked with his sword. Carefully shutting the door, they sat down in some seats by the front desk.

After a few moments' creepy silence in all that could be heard was the monotonous _tick-tock _of a wall clock, Hazel finally piped up, "Uh…so Nico? What exactly did you want to talk to me about?"

He turned towards her with those manic looking eyes, and she couldn't help but shake the felling that something was defiantly wrong with them.

"I've been having dreams,' he whispered waveringly, his eyes roving madly around the store. "Strange ones: ones that I can't explain." Hazel felt that cold feeling again crawl up her spine. She had been having the exact same.

"Yes, we're both having them," Nico said thoughtfully, and hazel wondered if it was the look in her eyes which gave it away, or some deeper connection between the two. "That _has _to mean something."

He could be right. After all, it had been the first dreams she had had in a long time. But she still had a sneaking suspicion this wasn't the reason Nico had brought her here.

"Nico, why did you _actually_ bring me here?" she asked more persistently. Nic looked at her sighed, and said, "Because I want to talk to you about Tartarus Hazel."

Hazel was stunned. So Nico was finally opening up. She had tried continuously to pry some information out of her, but eventually had given up. Now he was ready to tell her everything.

Of course, they never got that far, because suddenly a shadow appeared in the doorway: a hoofed figure, with a large bulky head stood framed there. Nico hissed, "Get down!' and pulled Hazel beneath the seats, the two breathing shallowly, willing themselves not to make a sound.

The satyr/faun (it was either one of the two, or the Minotaur; or an empousa for that matter. Which, by the way, would totally suck, Hazel thought silently to herself) pulled open the door and been its large head low to the ground and snuffled around urgently, as if looking for something; or someone. This is it, Hazel thought bitterly. We're done for.

As the figure was just about to reach the seats, Nico tripped him with his legs, and it fell with a soft _oomph!_ Nico, rolling out of cover, and drawing his Stygian iron blade, pressed it against the "goat-man's throat growling menacingly which wasn't all that hard given his appearance, "If you're not Coach Hedge, then who _are_ you!?"

The prostrate form of the creature/thing whimpered mournfully, "P-p-please don't hurt me!"

Nico suddenly dropped his sword in shock, which clattered harmlessly on the polished floor, nearly shearing the animal-like thing's front body fur off.

"_Grover_?!" Nico gasped in mild anger, once he got over his initial shock, but more in amazement and confusion.

"_Niiiiiico!_" Grover baaed joyfully, leaping up nimbly, and dusting himself off, nearly impaling his lower regions on Nico's sword with a loud gulp. Nico picked up his weapon, sheathed it, and shook Grover's hand warmly. "It's good to see you again Grover! How's it going man?"

Grover looked surprised at Nico's friendliness by the widening of his eyes; then he looked down embarrassed, and scuffed the ground with his left hoof muttering modestly, "Oh you know, same as always." Then he smiled shyly, saying, "I knew I could smell death on the air."

Nico laughed, and patted him on the back. Now that he was standing in a shaft of moonlight, Hazel could see that he was a young satyr, with pale white skin, an orange Rasta cap hanging crookedly on his curly-haired head, with (a straight red-band going round the middle of this,) and small pointed horns sticking out of his dishevelled hair. He also was wearing a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt of the same color as his cap, with an outline of a Pegasus in the centre of it, with the words "Camp-Half-Blood" in black surrounding the flying horse. He had hairy arms, and a wispy goatee; not to mention a furry torso, and hoofed feet. All in all he seemed quite a comical character, and a far less frightening one then the Coach could ever be.

"Dude," Nico said stupidly, looking down at the bottom half of his body. "Where are your pants and shoes?"

Hazel stifled a laugh, but had to admit that Nico was acting incredibly odd lately. At first he had seemed so secluded and hidden, but now he was acting more friendly and rebellious; not really like him at all. In fact, he was acting a lot like he had when he had seen Percy again. Hazel wished now more than ever to know what Nico had seen in Tartarus that had made him so…different.

At any rate he hadn't been straight with her. He hadn't told her the exact reason why he didn't tell Percy or Hazel the truth about things, when Percy had lost his memory. There was something he was hiding, and she didn't like it. And she would have figured it out too, if it wasn't for Grover's untimely arrival. Not that she blamed him or anything; if he was Percy's friend as he had said, then he couldn't be so bad. She knew very little about him of what Percy had told her, but he seemed like a nice guy. Hazel had realized that Nico and he had been talking in hushed tones, and now he was glancing around nervously, as if waiting for something bad to happen. Of what Hazel had seen of fauns, Grover seemed most fitting to that likeness to her. But now she looked at him quizzically, and he whimpered nervously, explaining, "Nico told me all about what happened, and now a lot of things make more sense to me." He stammered, his eyes still darting around the room, like he had drunk _waaaay_ too much coffee, his body completely jittery and his nose twitching out of control, as if he smelled something he really liked (or didn't like) but couldn't quite figure it out. Maybe it was the "death" smell he had been talking about earlier, but she didn't know for sure. "You see, me and Percy have this link," he continued to explain hyperactively. "And for a while now I haven't been able to contact him, so I figured he was in trouble. When I found out he had lost his memory form Annabeth,' he whimpered at this point, wiping his sleeve across his eyes, "Then I knew the reason why; I would have joined him at the battle at Camp Jupiter, but I had other business to attend to, (you know, saving nature and all that stuff, being Pan's keeper after all,)" (Hazel had no idea what the eccentric satyr was talking about, but decided to let it go, and allowed for him to continue. )"-and because I knew he was in good hands. I also would have gone on the Argo to Rome and Greece with you guys, but I'd have to be crazy-no offence-to go Europe. Then, a few hours ago, I felt the link go blank again," Hazel nodded. That would be about the time Percy and Annabeth fell. "So I decided to take Mrs. O'Leary and travel here, and left Juniper and the other council members in charge of my duties, though I had to convince the old hellhound to go by giving her extra doggy biscuits. And don't worry Nico," he said quickly, catching the accusing look in his eye. "She's safe and sound back at Camp-Half-Blood. Then, after I arrived here by following your guys' scent I got attacked by every monster imaginable, lost my pants_ and_ my shoes," he paused, scowling fiercely, and glaring pointedly at Nico who just chuckled softly,"And that's how I got here." He concluded, staring forlornly into Hazel's golden eyes. She felt a wave of pity for the poor satyr, and said comfortingly, "That's very brave of you Grover. I'm sure it must have taken a lot of courage for you to come all the way over here." He sniffled, and smiled gratefully at the daughter of Pluto. "Thanks Hazel; I really appreciate it." Then his eyes suddenly grew as wide as saucer dishes and he began to start to drool uncontrollably. He ran for a food machine, and pressed his face against the glass, moaning longingly, "Enchiladas!" And kept it up until Hazel thought she would go mad. Finally, when she couldn't take it any longer, she threw up her hands in exasperation, and said, "All right! All right! Stand back Grover!" She focused as hard as she could and all the money in the available area came shooting out of cash registers, food and drink machines, and even Nico's pant pockets. "Nico!" she said in mild frustration, but Nico just smiled devilishly with an amused glint in his eye and mouthed "Sorry." Soon the floor was littered with Euros, and Grover stuffed coins eagerly into the various machines until he had every last enchilada available in the store. They then walked out together, Grover's hands completely full of enchiladas, and murmuring happily between mouthfuls of countless varieties of the Mexican delicacies, "Foooood!" every few seconds or so.

"Nico?" Hazel asked him in a barely audible whisper, "Why didn't you tell him what happened?" Nico gazed distantly off into space, and Hazel wondered yet again, what had become of the old Nico, and where this new, more reckless Nico had come from.

"I'll tell him later," Nico said, his shattered eyes coming back to focus on hers. "Right now, let's just let him enjoy the moment."

They walked on in silence for a few moments' time, until Hazel asked him once more, "Nico, what happened down there? Please, you can tell me, I promise to tell no one."

Nico stopped so abruptly that Grover ran straight into his back, scattering enchiladas everywhere. Nico didn't seem to notice or care about the cheesy mess on his aviator's jacket, while Grover scrambled around willy-nilly, trying to clean up his mess, running after rolling enchiladas, and cramming others into his already full mouth.

"There was a voice," Nico said weakly, clawing at something around his neck.

"Was it Gaea?" Hazel asked hesitantly, as if talking to a wild, untamed beast.

"N-no, not Gaea. " Nico reassured her. "It was almost worse if possible. It was like the sound of a thousand eidolons scratching against my ears, and the hissing of a million hydras, the screams of monsters, the damned, and-and-" Nico's legs buckled, and Hazel instinctively lunged out to pick him up.

"N-no, I'm good-I'm fine." He sure didn't look fine. His skin was clammy and wet and his face was unnaturally white even for him, and it wasn't because of the moonlight. Picking himself up on his wobbly legs, he whirled around and gripped Hazel's shoulders in a surprisingly vice-like grip for a kid so frail-looking. Hazel let out a panicked and incredibly frightened scream. The look in Nico's eyes was anger and hatred, pure, uncontrolled, untameable anger. "It was the sound of all the titans, and they taunted me Hazel, they taunted me! They told me I was weak, pathetic, and useless. No, it wasn't Gaea- it was-"

"Tartarus," Hazel said weakly. "It was the spirit of Tartarus." Nico let go of Hazel, who fell limply in a heap on the ground. Turning her back on her, he said in a much more controlled, but near-silent whisper. "Are you happy now Hazel? ARE YOU HAPPY!?" He roared like a lion, clenching and unclenching his fists now, trying to gain control. Silence reigned, not even the sound of Grover's chews emanating from his overly stuffed mouth. Hazel slowly got up, and very carefully placed her hand on Nico's shoulder.

"Nico…" she pleaded, put he just turned on the heel of his foot, and pointed an accusing finger at her, accentuating each word with a poke in the chest, spittle flying everywhere as he vented his spleen. "I've had enough Hazel! Enough! I know you're just trying to help, but you can't! I've had enough of gods, of monsters of-of-of our father!"

He turned away suddenly, and Hazel could just barely see them reflecting in the moonlight; his salty tears falling unbidden onto the hard, unforgiving road. "I'm sorry Hazel,' he choked out. "I'm so sorry."

He began to walk away, and then broke into a run, disappearing into the shadows; literally. "Nico wait…' she croaked. "What about our father?" But it was too late; he was already gone.

Then, not able to hold it in any longer, she collapsed onto the hard cobblestone road, and curling up into a ball she wept uncontrollably. She wept for Percy and Annabeth, she wept for Nico, but most of all she wept because she felt completely and utterly alone, and as though she were a failure. She was surprised to feel a soft, woolly hand lightly pat her shoulder. "Come on, Hazel," Grover said gently into her ear. We have to go."

Grover was right. The sun was already starting to rise, and if they didn't get back soon, Coach Hedge would blow his top, and make them wear those dreadful cowbells. Hazel shuddered; she didn't want _that_ to happen, not over her dead body. Quickly wiping a rough sleeve over her swollen eyes, Hazel allowed Grover to help her up with one hand, and together they walked in silence together back to the Argo.

When they were getting closer to the ship, Grover asked softly, "They're gone aren't they?" Hazel stopped and looked into his large blue teary eyes, and saw his lower lip beginning to whimper. "Yes," Hazel replied just as softly, "But don't worry," she said with hard determination in her voice. "We'll get them back, I'm sure of it."

Grover nodded, and smiled. "Thanks Hazel," he said to her, lightly punching her shoulder playfully. "You're the girl." As he was expertly navigating his way up Hazel's still present rock protrusion, he called down, "And oh yeah, I almost forgot-Nico will come back-you'll see. He just-uh… needs to blow off some steam or something. He'll probably be back sometime today."

Hazel nodded dumbly, appreciating the gesture, considering Grover didn't know her, but she couldn't help but notice the skull necklace hanging from Grover's left hoof, with the glowing red sapphires for eyes.

Then it hit her like a lightening bolt. "Grover, wait!" she cried out in horror. But it was already too late; Grover had unintentionally and unwittingly hit the force field.


End file.
